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Halo, Destiny composer Martin O'Donnell fired by Bungie (update)

After composing some of the most memorable songs in gaming for Bungie games including most of the Halo series, Myth and Oni, Martin O'Donnell tweeted tonight that he has been terminated "without cause" by Bungie's board of directors. It's not entirely common for a game soundtrack to get the album release treatment, but that's just what happened for the Halo games and many gamers have been looking forward to O'Donnell's work on the upcoming game Destiny. There's still no word on why the separation happened, although if he's still interested in working on Halo, one would think it's time for 343 Industries to make a phone call. A statement on Bungie.net confirms the move, although it claims "Today, as friends, we say goodbye." The timing and feeling reported by the two sides appear to be at odds, and while we wait for more details we'll remember better days with Marty's recent work on the Destiny trailer as well as theme songs for Halo 1, 2 and 3.

Update 4/17: While we haven't heard more about the reasons for the change, Joystiq reports Bungie COO told the media at a Destiny preview even that "We don't make decisions lightly." Bungie also confirmed that O'Donnell's music will remain in the upcoming game, but has not commented further. Today O'Donnell tweeted again, dropping a link to his new website and offering to email updates on the "next big thing." For now, it's announcing O'Donnell will be at Video Games Live concerts in Seattle and Los Angeles, but we'll have to stay tuned to see what happens after that.

I'm saddened to say that Bungie's board of directors terminated me without cause on April 11, 2014.